


Of Tea and Sunrises

by flameofarcana



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, M/M, Non-Massacre AU, birthday fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:34:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24639235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flameofarcana/pseuds/flameofarcana
Summary: In a better timeline, Itachi gets to celebrate his fourteenth birthday.Happy Birthday to my favorite little ninja <3
Relationships: Uchiha Itachi & Uchiha Sasuke, Uchiha Itachi & Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Itachi/Uchiha Shisui
Comments: 6
Kudos: 82





	Of Tea and Sunrises

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!
> 
> This isn't....great, I wrote it in a couple of hours, but I wanted to write something for Itachi's birthday because he is Babey.
> 
> Non-massacre, everything got fixed and wrapped up with a nice little bow AU. Sasuke and Naruto are 8 and somehow already friends just...roll with it hehe. 
> 
> Enjoy!

It’s a sticky kind of heat that blankets the early June air. It never quite quells, not even now, at—Itachi turns his head groggily to look at his clock—4:52 in the morning.

“You’re going to wake him up!” a voice hisses outside his door.

“Not if you do first! You’re louder than I am!”

“I am _not_.” Sasuke’s whisper is indignant this time. Itachi smiles in the dark.

“Children,” says a third. It’s a sigh—fond, amused, edging on exasperated. “Give me the cake; you two wake him up and I will light it.”

“You said I could light it,” Naruto whines, forgetting to be quiet.

There is a bit of scuffling, and then Itachi hears his shoji door slide open slowly. Two sets of feet pat gently against his floor, and then over a hundred pounds of fledgling ninja throw themselves into his bed.

“Happy birthday!”

Itachi pretends to be startled—why Sasuke and Naruto still think they can sneak up on someone as elite as him, he isn’t sure, but he figures he will give it to them this once. “Well, good morning,” he greets, voice thick with sleep.

“Good morning, onii-chan!” Naruto’s voice is characteristically too loud. Itachi loops his arms around his shoulders, yanking him down before he can wake up his parents.

“Ah, Naruto-kun.” He presses his cheek against Naruto’s unbrushed hair. “I’ve finally fulfilled my mission to capture you.” He squeezes, and Naruto wiggles gleefully in his arms. “Stay still; I need to extract all the cuddles from you. This may take a few minutes.” He really does hope that their birthday surprise for him is just to snuggle in bed, but when has luck ever been on his side?

Sasuke, who has been staring at them with a wrinkled nose, harrumphs and decides to forcefully shove himself in between them.

“Hey!” Naruto complains loudly, flailing as Sasuke kicks him out of the way. “You bastard!”

Sasuke wraps his arms around Itachi’s neck and hugs him as tight as he can. “Happy birthday, Nii-san.”

Itachi cradles him, gentle, and simply says, “Otouto.” His voice could not be more drenched with love if he tried.

Before Naruto can try to dethrone Sasuke and retake his position, Shisui walks in with a single lit cupcake.

“What’s this?” Itachi asks, trying to push himself up so he can sit. Naruto clings to him like a sloth.

“It’s strawberries and cream,” Shisui chooses to answer. He takes a seat on the edge of Itachi’s bed. His eyes slant in a warm smile. “I couldn’t fit fourteen candles on it,” he says, “but you get the idea.”

Itachi accepts the treat. The single flame casts and orange glow onto Naruto’s eager face.

“Blow it out, blow it out!”

“He has to make a wish, first,” Shisui reminds.

Itachi’s eyes go from Shisui, to Sasuke, to Naruto. He reminds himself not to tighten his fingers around the cupcake or else it will squish.

He can’t think of anything to wish for. A few months ago, it would have been an endless list of impossible demands, a few months ago he would have begged for just a reassurance that a civil war wouldn’t split his beloved village. But now, in a lone candle light, surrounded by arguably the most precious people on his planet, with an imprisoned Danzo, agreeable Hokage and sated clan—there isn’t a thing on earth he can ask for.

He closes his eyes and blows out the candle.

Naruto starts to cheer, and Sasuke shoves him so hard he almost tumbles off of the bed. He squawks and shoves Sasuke back.

Itachi sighs.

“Children,” Shisui reminds—the tone of his voice reminds Itachi of Kakashi, and his heart _bridles_ with excitement for the day that he gets to see Shisui as a jounin sensei— “aren’t you forgetting to tell Itachi something?”

Sasuke smiles. His face still has some baby fat, round cheeks and happy black eyes, a little blush on his nose as he looks up with excitement. Itachi reaches out to cup his face.

“There’s more?” He asks, knowing he would do anything in the world to keep that smile on his brother’s face.

“Mhm,” Sasuke says, “but it’s a surprise. You have to come see it.”

Naruto has righted himself and sits on his knees. He starts to bounce up and down. “Let’s go, let’s go! We only have a few more minutes!”

Itachi raises his eyebrows.

“We have plenty of time,” Shisui assures, sending Itachi a wink. “Kids, why don’t you go make sure everything is ready. I’ll stay here while Itachi gets dressed and bring him over when he’s ready.”

Sasuke visibly pouts, one hand slinking forward to curl into the material of Itachi’s pajama pants. “I wanted to walk there with Nii-san,” he grumbles.

Itachi pats his cheek. “We can go on a long walk later today, alright?” Sasuke still looks less than pleased, so Itachi adds, “How about you and Naruto race there, and who ever wins can get a piggy back ride from me when we come home?”

Naruto is already off the bed, sliding and tumbling against the floor. He scrambles to his feet, smacking his ankle on the door jam as he flees the room. “I got a head start!”

Sasuke’s face floods with outrage. “That’s _cheating_ ,” he almost yells, his tiny little moral compass spinning; he’s off the bed in a second to chase after his friend.

Itachi shakes his head. “My dad will berate me for waking him up.”

“The woes of being a ninja,” Shisui jokes. He strokes his hand across Itachi’s hair, thumb brushing against his cheekbone. The silence and stillness of the room wraps around them, broken only by the gentle unrest of crickets outside. He leans forward to press a kiss to Itachi’s soft forehead.

“Happy birthday, my Itachi,” Shisui breathes, voice warmer than the wax melted on the side of the candle.

Itachi suppresses a groan; he doesn’t look forward to an entire day of hearing that again and again. “Thank you,” he says instead.

“So,” Shisui asks, pulling back, reaching over and tucking a lock of dark hair behind Itachi’s ear, “when did we wake you up?”

Itachi hums. “Around the time Naruto almost fell in the koi pond.”

Shisui snickers. His hand drops down to pat Itachi’s knee. “I did try to convince them to let you sleep in, but they insisted.”

“I figured,” Itachi sighs, setting the cupcake down on his night stand so he can rub at his eyes. “The two of them are going to be…something else in a few years, when they get stronger.”

“Unstoppable force meets immovable object,” Shisui muses. “It must have been fate that put them together. I can’t say whether or not it will be good or bad.” He grins. “Do you think they’ll be able to take us on someday?”

Itachi glances at him from under the fists kneading his eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

Shisui’s eyes close completely in his smile.

Itachi stretches, popping his shoulder and twisting his neck. It’s nice to wake up in summer heat simply because he doesn’t have to leave a warm bed for cold air. He pops his ankles before his feet hit the ground. “You don’t have anything too big planned, do you?” Itachi has never been fond of birthdays; he’s never been fond of attention at all, and birthdays have always seemed frivolous to him. Shisui has berated him for calling something frivolous before the age of forty-five.

“Of course not. Don’t you trust me?” Shisui steps back to lean against the wall.

“Not when it comes to celebrations, no,” Itachi replies, stifling a yawn.

“So you admit your birthday is a celebration, then?”

“I admit that _you_ think it is a celebration.”

“Sasuke and Naruto clearly do, too.”

“They’re kids.”

Shisui rolls his eyes.

Itachi stands up. He stretches his arms above his head. “Shall we go?”

“You aren’t even going to eat the cupcake? I baked that myself, you know,” Shisui says, feigning hurt with his puppy dog eyes.

Itachi pauses. His heart softens. “You did?”

“Uh, of course I did.” He snags it off the nightstand and holds it out for him. “From scratch. It took me about three tries to get the frosting right.”

Itachi’s lips twitch. He carefully takes the tiny cake from him, fingers pulling at the delicate baking paper. “I don’t like frosting,” he says, taking a bite.

“I know.” Shisui winks. “Why do you think it took so many tries? I had to get it just the right sweetness and stickiness for you.” He watches while Itachi chews; after he swallows, Shisui darts his thumb out to swipe along the corner of Itachi’s mouth, catching up the pink goo that got smeared there. He sticks his thumb in his mouth. “I think I did a pretty good job.”

Itachi is wide eyed.

Before he stutters out a thank you for the cupcake, Shisui winks at him and says, “Get changed and whatnot, I’ll wait for you outside. You can save the rest of the cupcake for later. Don’t take too long, otherwise the children may burn down half of Konoha by the time we get there.”

Itachi changes into his normal black pants and a dark blue sweatshirt. It has the Uchiha crest embroidered onto the back, and for the first time in _years_ Itachi actually feels pride in wearing it again. He brushes his teeth, uses his fingers to comb his hair and ties it up at the base of his neck.

Shisui waits for him, arms crossed as he leans against the side of his house, and grins when he sees him. “You ready?”

Itachi holds one hand out, smiling. “Take me away.”

Shisui’s face lights up as he slips his fingers in between Itachi’s.

Shisui takes him to the top of the cliffs that line the Nakano river. It’s always been their favorite place in Konoha—their own, personal little place. They shared it with Sasuke and Naruto because Sasuke nearly threw a fit demanding to know where Shisui was stealing his big brother.

They hope they wont regret that someday.

When they get close enough Itachi slips his hand out from Shisui’s. Sasuke and Naruto are arguing over something—Itachi thinks he can hear them say something about a lizard, but that _can’t_ be right—near a banner held up with two brown sticks that reads ‘Happy Birthday Ita-nii’ in predictably messy kids’ scrawl (he can just barely make it out in the dim light). There’s a small campfire with a stone and a teapot suspended above it, a picnic blanket and some cushions, and what looks like a dessert box.

“What’s all this?” he asks, loud enough for them to hear; they both straighten up as if they hadn’t just been at each other’s throats. Sasuke takes off running. “I won the race!” he exclaims, throwing himself against Itachi and locking his arms around him.

“You did _not_ ,” Naruto squawks. “I won fair and square! Onii-chan, he’s lying!”

“I am not.” Sasuke sticks his tongue out.

“Yeesh,” Shisui says, “all of this over a piggy back ride. Where’s the love for me? I can give em too, ya know.”

“It isn’t your birthday!” Naruto answers, grabbing Itachi by the hand and dragging him to their makeshift little nest. “Today is all about Itachi.”

He smiles, accepting Sasuke’s hand as he rushes to compete with Naruto for attention. “And what are we doing for my birthday?”

“We’re going to watch the sunrise! We have tea and dango and presents for you.”

“Sasuke and I made the dango!” Naruto shouts. Even though they’re outside, the muddled darkness makes it feel too loud.

“How sweet,” Itachi replies in earnest.

They usher Itachi down onto a cushion, stealing the seats on either side of him so that Shisui has to sit across from them. He tends to the tea, and when it’s ready pours each of them a cup. It’s a good blend, jasmine and lilac, just enough sweetness, and Itachi breathes in the floral smell before every sip. Naruto pretends to enjoy it, but the wrinkling of his nose and less-than-quiet sound effects give him away. Shisui dumps a whole lot more sugar into it.

Dawn breaks a dusty blue and purple, seeping from the horizon and into Konoha’s borders. It comes in warm with the summer morning breeze, wraps around Itachi so he doesn’t need a blanket, and as the sun rises it casts the Konoha forest with orange, reflects gold off of the waterfall that pours into the river below them.

When it’s light enough to read, Sasuke _insists_ that Itachi open his card first. It’s neat, well thought out, and has all of the trademarks of ruler usage and a thesaurus. Naruto’s is a scribbly, over excited mess, with wall to wall coloring and misspelled words. Itachi loves them both dearly.

Their dango isn’t bad; it’s actually surprisingly good, and he realizes that Shisui, who certainly helped them, has been holding out on him.

They finish their tea and snacks; Shisui challenges the children as he so fondly calls them to see who can throw a rock the farthest into the river to distract them. It works, of course, and they take off down the cliffside to find more stones.

Naruto ends up tackling Sasuke, and they wrestle in the dirt.

Itachi shakes his head. “Did we have that much energy when we were their age?”

Shisui laughs gently. He sets his hand on top of Itachi’s, lets his fingers slip down between Itachi’s. “Why are you referring to us like we are old and brittle.”

“I _feel_ old,” Itachi mutters.

“Well you’re _not_ ,” Shisui insists. “And those two,” he jerks his head in the direction of Naruto, poised on Sasuke’s back with his arms locked around his neck, and Sasuke, who spins to dethrone him until he eventually throws himself to the ground, “aren’t gonna let you forget it.”

Itachi looks over at him.

Shisui’s face is illuminated in the growing morning sun, enough light for his eyelashes to cast long shadows against his prominent cheekbones, enough light to show the dimension of his curly hair. Itachi’s eyes drop down to the swell of his collarbones and the roll of his gently muscled shoulders. He’s only a year older than Itachi, turning sixteen in just a few months, but he’s growing more quickly, maturing more fluidly, and Itachi feels himself fawning more and more every day.

He scoots over so their hips are touching and leans his weight against Shisui’s side.

Shisui knocks his head against Itachi’s, playful and sweet.

For a moment its only him, and Shisui, and the endearing sound of intermingled bickering and laughter.

“Oh,” Shisui says, fishing around in his pants’ pocket. “I almost forgot.”

The grin in his eyes tells Itachi that he absolutely did not forget.

Shisui pulls out a little cardboard box, short and flat. It was obviously plain brown before Shisui took to it with what seemed like a blue crayon. “I’m not an artist,” he says, ducking his head. “I stole the crayon from a classroom. I did my best, okay?”

Itachi’s eyebrows set, and he looks up with a glare. “We said no gifts, and yet you’ve baked me something and brought me a present.”

“ _Technically_ ,” Shisui argues, grin wide, “the gift isn’t really from me.”

Itachi blinks. He accepts the tiny box and rattles it gently. “Whom, then?”

Shisui slips his arm behind Itachi and gently rubs his back. “My crows brought them to me, and I tied them together so you can keep them with you.” He sets it on Itachi’s knee.

Itachi laughs. He picks it up in his nimble fingers, feeling the weight of it, the texture of the little container. “Your crows, huh?”

“You know how they get with shiny things. They like you a lot. Maybe more than they like me.” Shisui leans over to kiss his cheek, quick as ever. “I can’t blame them; I like you a lot, too.”

Itachi ignores the heat on his cheeks.

On a simple pad of cotton that Shisui nestled into the little box lies three silver rings tied together with a grey cord.

“You know,” Shisui continues conversationally, “I should teach you their summons. We could probably share, they listen to us both pretty well. I think that would be a pretty wicked battle strategy.” He nudges Itachi with his elbow. “Could probably keep us together when they send us on missions, too. I never sleep well when you’re gone.”

Itachi could scold him for fretting over his safety when they both know that Itachi is beyond capable, but he doesn’t. He runs his finger over the three little loops.

“I don’t know where they came from,” Shisui continues, “but I washed them really thoroughly.” He shrugs one shoulder. “Just something to remember me by, especially now that you’re so busy being the Hokage-to-be.”

Itachi wrinkles his nose. “I am _not_ the hokage to be.”

“You say that….”

Itachi ignores him again. He lifts the piece of jewelry from the box, setting it down on the dirt next to him. There isn’t a clasp on it, so he holds it out to Shisui. “Tie it for me?” he asks.

Shisui’s face lights up in a smile. He takes the necklace from Itachi’s hands and gently lays it on his throat. “There?” When Itachi nods, he ties it in a _tight_ knot so that Itachi will have trouble taking it off.

He leans away to admire his work. “How pretty,” he coos.

Itachi rolls his eyes.

His fingers, the ones not sneaking back over to touch Shisui’s, brush against his new gift.

He thinks again about how surreal all of this is. Just a few months ago he had nothing to celebrate, no time to relax. Shisui and he were barely even able to enjoy each other’s friendship. Every aspect of his life was hard, unmoving, closing in on him like an animal trap.

And now he can sit and eat sweets, now he can watch the sunrise for the fun of it. Now he’s the advisor to the Hokage, a position he still doesn’t feel ready for, and Shisui is the Uchiha liaison and second under Fugaku. His clan mates are already undergoing anbu training, and he’s pretty sure the new assignment for Hokage Guard had red eyes under his mask.

His father is happy and proud, Sasuke is flourishing in the academy, Shisui is holding his hand.

He’s still waiting to wake up to an empty heart and bloody hands, but it hasn’t happened yet.

“Thank you for being such a good sport about all of this,” Shisui murmurs.

Itachi meets his eyes.

“I think it would have broken Sasuke’s heart,” Shisui said, voice soft, “if he didn’t get to have today with you.”

Itachi saddens just a bit, and he’s quiet. “I know he isn’t happy with me right now,” he admits. “I know I haven’t been a good big brother to him lately.” It hurts to think—hurts even more to say out loud.

“You’ve been plenty good,” Shisui assures, gentle but fierce. “You’ve been good in ways he doesn’t understand yet. Someday he’ll get why would couldn’t spend time playing with him these past few years.”

Itachi blinks slowly. “I’ll try to make up for it. It should— _should_ —be easier now, without existential dread hanging over me, even though I still have many new responsibilities.”

“Crazy how existential dread just ruins everything,” Shisui cracks, half of a smile on his lips. He cups the back of Itachi’s head and pulls him forward so he can whisper, “You’re gonna do amazing, Itachi. You’re gonna be the best damn Hokage since Hashirama himself.”

Itachi flinches at the praise. “Do not be ridiculous.”

“You think I’m joking?” Shisui’s eyebrows draw up. “Who saved Konoha from crisis, hm? Who repaired the longest running rift a village has ever seen, _hm_? Even Hashirama couldn’t right that alliance.”

Itachi mutters, “Keep your voice down.” He doesn’t know what to do with the praise. “Besides, I don’t think we are completely out of the woods yet.”

Shisui tisks. “Allow yourself to gloat _just_ this once, Itachi. I’d say Hashirama owes you a few favors.”

Itachi doesn’t dignify it with a response.

After a few moments, Shisui sobers a bit and says, “I mean it though. Thank you for today. This morning. Not just on behalf of the children.”

Itachi tilts his head, searching Shisui’s eyes.

“For me, too,” he explains in one rushed breath. “It means a lot to me, too.” Itachi just keeps staring at him, so he continues, “I didn’t know…how many more birthdays we had.” He clears his throat a little. “I didn’t know if I would get to see you turn fourteen, or fifteen, or—” his eyes drop down. “I didn’t know if I would get the change to turn sixteen, but it looks like I will, huh?” He rubs the side of his cheek.

Itachi leans his head on Shisui’s shoulder. “Yeah,” he says, voice a little hollow as he remembers the panic in Shisui’s voice when he came to him with poison in his blood, the look on his face as he said _it’s Danzo, it’s Danzo, he tried to take my eye and he_ poisoned me—

He casts the memory away.

“Nothing is promised,” Shisui says gently, “and I thought I was going to lose everything, so the fact that I still get you despite what we dealt with is pretty worth celebrating.”

Itachi smiles. He tightens his fingers around Shisui’s, lifts his other hand to wrap around Shisui’s arm. “You didn’t think we could be defeated that easily, did you? Here I thought we were the best dream team since Konoha’s foundation.”

“We _are_.”

Itachi closes his eyes. “Then I guess we’ll be celebrating a lot more birthdays.”

**Author's Note:**

> yayyy happily ever afters! haha
> 
> I just wanted something sweet and happy because Itachi deserves it!!
> 
> Sorry it's kinda slapped together, I wrote it in a couple of hours. This is also the shortest thing I've ever written, go me!
> 
> Thank you for reading! If you have a moment I'd love to know what you think. Have a good week! Happy Itachi day!


End file.
